The Naxos Deutsche Schubert-Lied-Edition is beginning to rival the 40-CD Hyperion
Edition in size - these are volumes 33 and 34 - if not always in quality. The
tone, set by the very first volumes, such as number 6, which John Quinn thought
very good value, if not quite the best available (8.554740 - see review)
is continued in these latest CDs.

These two volumes continue the work of Volume 32 in collecting the part-songs,
still a little-known part of Schubert’s song output. Arthur Hutchinson’s Schubert in
the Dent Master Musicians series (1945), the first book on Schubert
which I read and still a useful work of reference, contains one brief mention
of “the male-voice Song of theSpirits over the Waters,
or the vocal dance Welcome Spring” (p.140) and nothing else on
the part-songs. His comment that these works are “unaccountably neglected” still
largely holds good. The Gesang der Geister is a part-song with orchestral
accompaniment and, therefore, beyond the remit of the Naxos edition.

Naxos has chosen to present the part-songs separately in three volumes, whereas
Hyperion have intermingled them with other repertoire. Thus, for example, Gott
in der Natur, D757, the first item on Volume 2, appears on Volume 35 of
the Hyperion edition in the company of other part-songs but also of Lieder
for solo voice, all written in the last years of the composer’s life,
1822-1825.

The presence of acknowledged masterpieces such as Lachen und Weinen,
D777, and Du bist die Ruh, D776, together with other less well-known
but excellent songs, on that Hyperion disc (CDJ33035) will make it a more attractive
proposition for most listeners. The Hyperion comes at twice the price of the
Naxos but, if the price seems an insuperable problem, it can be downloaded
from the new Hyperion download site for £7.99 (mp3 or lossless flac),
a facility which I have recently highlighted in choosing my top 30 Hyperion
downloads in an article which should have appeared by the time that your read
this review. If price is a real issue, Hyperion’s superb sampler from
the first 27 CDs in the series, HYP200, at £3.99 is a bargain to be snapped
up a.s.a.p. - it’s advertised as limited in availability and it isn’t
yet available for download.

A friend who has seen my choice of the Hyperion Top 30 has justly criticised
my omission of the Schubert and Schumann Song Editions; I felt that they were
just too large an enterprise for me to be able to do justice to them with one
or two highlighted CDs, so I hope to include some items from both collections
in forthcoming Download Roundups.

On CDJ33035 Hyperion line up a formidable array of interpreters: Patricia Rozario,
Lorna Anderson, Catherine Denley and Catherine Wyn-Rogers in Gott in der
Natur; John Mark Ainsley, Jamie MacDougall, Simon Keenlyside and Michael
George in Der Gondelfahrer, D809, another part-song included on Naxos
Volume 2 (tr.14).

I have already indicated that two whole discs devoted exclusively to the part
songs would not be my ideal way to present the music: charming as many of these
pieces are, there are no masterpieces here. Opening Volume 2 with a setting
of Kleist’s poem Gott in der Natur did little to endear this CD
to me. I have seen it suggested that Schubert seems to have wished to imitate
the manner of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte in this piece but
the result appears rather overblown, even pompous by comparison with the normal
Schubertian manner. Add the fact that the text is rather overdone, and that
some of the performers are not in best voice - it’s almost as if they
used this piece to warm up; matters improve later - and I begin to understand
why my Arcam Solo refused to play this first track. My other decks were more
obliging.

I have to admit that Kleist is hardly my favourite German poet - he doesn’t
even figure in The Oxford Book of German Poetry on which my tastes were
formed over fifty years ago - so I’m happy that Schubert reduced his
seventeen stanzas to a mere four, but all in all this track gets the CD off
to a poor start. Even Hyperion’s excellent team of performers fail to
convince me, though their performance is more secure, not least because of
the strong lead given by Graham Johnson at the piano in the opening bars. The
more leisurely tempo on Hyperion also helps, but I am surprised that both Naxos
and Hyperion chose to open their respective CDs with this piece.

Much more sensible was the decision to conclude Naxos’s Volume 2 with
the attractive Ständchen, D920, with words by Schubert’s
friend Grillparzer, a better poet, though hardly a first-ranker - he’s
better known for his plays. The words are no masterpiece - Grillparzer is also
conspicuous by his absence from the Oxford Book of German Verse - but
it’s what Schubert does with them that counts and he does some fine things
here.

Schubert’s setting of Moses Mendelssohn’s translation of Psalm
No.23 (tr.2) is a fine piece; the singing is better here than on track 1, but
I prefer Wolfgang Sawallisch’s slightly faster account on EMI Classics
7474072, which also contains versions of the Deutsche Messe and Mass
No.2 and which I preferred in another recent review to versions on Naxos. That
EMI recording is deleted on CD, except in a very inexpensive box set of Schubert’s Complete
Sacred Works (5860112, 7 CDs for around £20) and as a download from passionato.com (mp3
and lossless flac).

I’ve already indicated that matters improve in the later pieces; tracks
14-16 compare more favourably with their equivalents on Hyperion than did Gott
in der Natur. Whereas the Hyperion performers took that first track slightly
more leisurely than their Naxos rivals, in Der Gondelfahrer, D809 (Naxos
tr.14) the boot is on the other foot, with Johnson setting a slightly but significantly
faster pace from the outset. I think that the music benefits from this and
the piece certainly benefits from Michael George’s contribution; good
as Thomas Bauer, the Naxos bass is, he is out-performed here.

Coronach (tr.15) is a song of mourning but, again, Hyperion’s
slightly faster pace is no disadvantage to the music and the line-up of Rozario,
Anderson and Wyn-Rogers again proves to be more impressive than Naxos’s
Schwarz, Jakobi and Danz. The latter trio are far from completely outshone,
however; I could happily live with either and both make this strange combination
of two sopranos and mezzo/alto work well.

I’ve already indicated that the final track, Ständchen, D920,
provides a fine conclusion to Volume 2; not only is the music much more amenable
than Gott in der Natur on the opening track, but the singers seem much
more at home with it. It’s a late piece (1827, not published until 1891)
and it’s a real gem, deserving to be better known - just about the nearest
to a masterpiece that anything on these two CDs comes.

Even Sarah Walker on Hyperion, with a fine line-up of male-voice supporters
and Graham Johnson, doesn’t put the Naxos performance to shame (CDJ33008,
tr.16) though her performance is rightly thought good enough to feature on
Hyperion’s sampler for the series (HYP200, tr.22) and again on Hyperion’s
general sampler, The Essential Hyperion 2 (HYP20, CD2, tr.4).

Volume 3 opens as auspiciously as Volume 2 ended, with a fine performance of Trinklied,
D75. This youthful piece makes a powerful opening to a programme of exclusively
male-voice songs which I find marginally preferable as a whole to the repertoire
on Volume 2. Only Graham Johnson’s slightly more decisive lead-in and
Michael George’s more powerful bass give the performance on Hyperion
CDJ33033 the edge in this piece.

The little-known nature of the music on CDJ33033 means that the CD is available
only from the Archive Service or as a download (mp3 or flac) or in the complete
edition. The music on Naxos Volume 3 is a little better known - the male-voice
songs have proved more popular than those for female and mixed voices - and
it contains some very attractive songs.

Die Nachtigall, D724 (tr.3) is one such and Frühlingsegang,D740,
(tr.11) another, to take just two at random; both receive a performance as
appealing as the music. I listened to the extract from Die Nachtigall on
the Hyperion website and didn’t feel that there was much to choose between
the two versions. Though the Hyperion is slightly faster on paper, the Naxos
performers keep the momentum going just that little more effectively; if there’s
anything in it, I think they have the edge here. Die Nachtigall is performed
on An 1822 Schubertiad, CDJ33028, a CD which also contains a few of
the other part-songs on Naxos Volume 3. It’s an attractive programme,
including a marginally faster performance of Frühlingsgesang than
that on Naxos Vol.3, but not, I think, preferable to the latter. Just occasionally,
one of the Naxos tenors - I’m not sure which - lets the side down slightly.

The Naxos recording is good throughout. The notes, by Ulrich Eisenlohr, the
accompanist and directing force behind this enterprise, are very good. His
gloss on Gott in der Natur, suggesting that Schubert was here setting
a text whose vision of God differed from his own, helped me understand my lack
of response to this song. The cover portraits are of two of the poets whose
work Schubert set - Friedrich von Matthison and Gottfried Bürger respectively.

You will have to download the texts and translations from the web; they are
certainly worth having, especially as they give the dates of all the pieces,
few of which are indicated in the notes in the booklet.

If you prefer to have Schubert’s part-songs collected together, these
Naxos CDs will offer you a set of mostly good, often very good and always adequate,
performances, well recorded and attractively presented. Volume 3 (8.572110)
is especially recommendable. Turn to the Hyperion recordings, however, and
you will find a slightly but significantly better quality of performance, notably
so in the case of Volume 2 (8.570962), but the part-songs are scattered across
several Hyperion volumes. Those content with a single-CD selection will probably
be happy with Marcus Creed’s recording on Harmonia Mundi HMC90 1669 -
I haven’t heard it, but it has been recommended in various quarters.